01. Does cultural capital matter in professional settings? Educational value profiles among the personnel in kindergartens

This article presents a study on plausible correlations between social background and educational values in a group of 700 employees in 80 Danish kindergartens. It investigates whether the pedagogical efforts of the staff are indebted to their living milieus of upbringing. The basic premises of research are developed along Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, outlined in the concept of “normative acts”, which also serves as a point of departure for the research design. Employing the multiple correspondence analyses in continuation of the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu, the first section of the questionnaire used gathers information on the respondents’ capital assets. In the second section, participants are asked a number of value questions based on the framework of Mary Douglas. Subsequently, I examine the structural interrelationship between the two sections. The research results show that the respondents typically share pedagogical values across social background, age, and position in the professional job hierarchy. However, it also shows that there are correlations between the possession of acquired capital and particular educational values.